Ferrari's California Connection

250 GT California Spyder. Nuff said.

 

I don't know the answer, but can tell you that, in the early days, Luigi Chinetti was the sole licensed importer. As you know, he was on the East Coast. There was a procession of California dealers, including Otto Zipper and Eleanor von Neumann (Ferrari Reps of Ca). I think one or both were sub-licensees. Then Bill Harrah got the Western distributorship and he licensed a number of dealers. Because Chinetti was the ONLY dealer for a number of years, my gut feeling is that Ferrari's presence was much stronger in the East, originally. Several people in Ca. were active in bringing in used cars (I started in 1959) partly because there seemed to be a market, although very slim. Recently, Piero Ferrari confirmed to me the the US is still their biggest market, but I didn't think to ask about Ca. Hope this sheds a bit of light---I'll be interested to see any other replies.

 

I don't remember the exact number but the answer is yes.